Be Excellent To Each Other

Welsh persons - are you ready for this snow apparently coming tonight?

Well if it does snow, it had better give me more than an inch of it this time.

Does it look like any's going to hit Cardiff, Guv?

Also, I'm headed on the train back home this evening - departing from Manchester Picadilly through the Heart of Wales - might be interesting. Hmm. I wanted to set off in the evening, would you advise me heading home earlier? Is it looking bad?

There was none after all that. Weatherman - easiest job in the world.

"Tomorrow, it might be snow". What's their average wage again?

/edit Looking beyond my land now the hills have gone so something's afoot.

Cut to Dakota Fanning's/creepy small child-actor tiny face, standing next to Govt. Yard looking out over the hills: "It's here..."

Cue slow pulsing heartbeat as the screen fades to black only to with each beat show in two second flashes scenes of different snowy conditions - an old man slipping up, some kids on a sledge, a car refusing to start, a weatherman munching a sandwich ignoring the reams of data on screen behind him. Etc. BBC ident.

Call that snow? Pah. THIS is snow.

It IS here now.

Yeah, it's getting on for an inch deep here, and still snowing steadily with heavy looking grey skies.

Another Cwmbran chap's missus advises it's now 2 inches there. Still a light but growing dusting in Cardiff itself, Caerphilly was fine when I left there two hours ago but the hills were unsurprisingly white on top already.

Here we go again, 'unexpected' weather. In winter. Snow.

That is unexpected in Britain. Stop being so Canadian.

Even in the North and Scotland? Stop being a cunt.

How was it unexpected? More snow this week has been in the forecast for ages. I think it's due to hit here on about Wednesday.

I was talking longer term unexpected; the kind of timeframes one would need to order snow plows or plentiful supplies of grit and salt, for example.

Hmm. I like Canadians. But I also like cunts. But which is better?

Shania Twain.

This is what boggles me. Snow happens in winter, and councils have salt trucks, snow plows, and huge silos of salt and grit standing by. So it's not unexpected, they've made preparations, and it's the grinding-to-a-halt-ness of it that's infuriating.

Some of the bigger problems are down to people not driving to the conditions, especially in light of the fact that they don't fit winter tires.

A bigger issue is that grit and salt don't work when:

It snows and then stops. Then it rains which means the grit will be washed away. Rain freezes to ice.

[warning - JC grade picture post coming up]

Some snows, yesterday.



I did since manage to drive out to get vital supplies (well, just to see if I could really). The gas car wouldn't have had a chance because the snow is higher than its bumper and would have just piled up in front.

Cats do better, they have low ground pressure and can walk around on the frozen crust of the snow (only occasionally falling through, which is funny to watch).



Potato deliveries were fortunately unaffected by the weather:


Chips anyone?

I've never seen a snow plow in the UK; have you? And during the snow in Feb this year, it transpired that due to enormously rising costs most local councils had stopped stockpiling grit and they ran out. I daresay that's happened again now.

We only have more than a half inch of snow half a dozen times a decade. Why would anyone buy winter tyres? Do you have winter tyres for the Octy?

We really haven't had this much snow, or below-zero temperatures lasting for this long, for over 10 years. I dug out my old snow tyres intending to fit them to a set of rims for my van but found they had cracked and perished from old age.

If you drivved that would you be Doctor Octy?

I remember seeing one in Bradford in the winter, yes. And they do show up on the news sometimes while they're talking about the weather



I can't say this repeat incompetence surprises me.



You misunderstand. People aren't driving to the conditions IN LIGHT OF THE FACT they don't have winter tires. And even with them, you take it really, really easy.

It's not incompetence -- it's a calculated risk to spend the money elsewhere. I don't disagree with their decision. If they'd, say, not fixed potholes in your road in favour of stockpiling a thousand tons of grit, and it hadn't snowed this winter, would you be pissed about that too?

(not a sarcastic question) Salt and grit doesn't go 'bad' does it? Surely better to keep as full a stock as possible and keep topping it up as you use it, rather than not buy any more and run out? Would you be pissed if you needed an ambulance and due to the failure of the council to keep the roads passable (so other accidents to deal with, slippery to drive, etc etc) it couldn't get to you in time?

Only about half an inch up at my house, a couple of miles east of you. Been round the game shops in Cwmbran yet? entire store is queuing in both and they are out of the door. It's mental.

My wife has to get from Caerphilly to here, vie the M4.

Yes, I think most of our gritters double as ploughs. Also, our cooncil had enough grit that they could dump a load of it in a carpark so people could grab some for their paths. Apparently greedy bastards had grabbed multiple bags of it but I still managed to get enough to do most of my path

Wife home, gardens now whiter than Nick Griffin.

They don't grit up this way, too remote it seems. Luckily went shoping sun/mon and have new big telly and games and a pantry full of beers and foods to last until Sunday.

I trust you also have drinking water, plenty of batteries and candles, and some canned goods with a non-electric opener, just in case. And a wind-up radio.

That makes it sound like you've had them since the 1950s.

He said he had a tv, games, beer and food. What the fuck would he need all that for?

From the 90s, off my first car. They might have been second hand then though.

Three things.

One, as Dimrill said, Salt is no fucking good under any circumstances when it rains first and washes away. This is what happened in London last week and in the great Birmingham Snow carnage of 2004(ish). Got to feel sorry for the councils under those conditions, where rain turns to heavy snow, no country in the world would have stopped the roads icing up.

Second, which may be of more relevance when considering us crap - Salt used to be mixed with molasses to make it stick to the road. Until this winter, as sugar is too expensive a commodity to spray on roads this year. Wouldnt help in the situation above, but there are probably slightly more issues in 2009 than would have arisen previously.

Thirdly, the amount of dedicated storage space needed to stockpile grit on the offchance of heavy snow all year round is prohibitively expensive, hence its only acquired in the periods when it is most likely to be needed. Which aint generally December.

Oh, and I saw a snowplough in London last week. Made of pure gold it was, with a diamond encrusted blade. Because we're that fucking rich down south.

Well this is it. Countries that have proper snow don't even bother trying - they just plough off the deep snow and let you get on with it. The ice gets ruts in it so to keep the roads smooth they run a grader over it a few times through the winter. The tarmac emerges again in spring.

Also, can you imagine the tabloid anger if, say, London equipped itself next year to deal with all the weather circumstances 2009 has given us, and then in 2010 there was no frost or snow? Can't win.

Its about time this country realised it doesn't need democracy, and want people want is to be told what they want, how much they are going to have to work for it, and start executing mentally ill drug smugglers.

I'm supposed to be driving to Oxford again tomorrow, or sometime. I don't feel as worried about it this time, oddly.

SNOW IN BRUM

Fuck you guys.

I have snow in Pontypool.

And I saw a snow plow. (It seems they just bolt a plow to the front of the gritter lorry).

The roads are snowy/slushy and perfectly passable if you're prepared to apply a dab of oppo and some high gearing.

Perversely there isn't a flake at my bro's in Chepstow.

That is all.

I work in Pontypool, how is it down the main road?

Duals are all fine. But one lane when I came up them about 8.30pm. I didn't go up Osborne Road, but the main road up to Abersychan is fine. Tesco is fine too as 100000000000000000000000000000000 nobs have been in and out of the car park and undoubtedly bought all the bread and milk.

I played golf at Raglan Park earlier (what's that Gwent Police? No. It WAS an essential journey) and there was significantly less snow in Usk (you live near Usk now right?) than here.

Course it could all be gone by morning.

View from my bedroom window this morning.

Which was unexpected!

Whew!! Looks beautiful!

It’s -4°c here, but no snow at all.

Where's that Malc?

Ivybridge (just outside Plymouth in Devon). It all melted by midday, but it might snow again tonight.

It did not snow over night, we have an incredibly clear blue sky with the waning moon shining bright above The Famous Lee Mill

Very misty and foggy here today. Yesterday was much nicer.

First snow of the year for us.

The East of England is not holding its end up here. Not even freezing today, so this is as close as we got to snow, from the other day:

We apparently had a little snow overnight too. Unfortunately it's been drizzling non-stop all day - with temperatures still low enough it hasn't quite melted all the snow/frost yet.

The council hasn't been out gritting. Not looking good for going anywhere tomorrow.